Knit article having parts of different lengths



Jan 11, 1955 E. D. KATTERMANN KNIT ARTICLE `HAVING PARTS OF' DIFFERENTLENGTHS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed April 27, 1951 IM Tulum llmuuumn Jan. l1,1955 E. D. KATTERMANN KNIT ARTICLE HAVING PARTS OF DIFFERENT LENGTHS 2Sheets-Sheet 2A Filed April 2'?,V 1951 o RM y MAF W MM W m5 m M K A ,MW

United States Patent O KNIT ARTICLE HAVING PARTS OF DIFFERENT LENGTHSEmil D. Kattermann, Dover, N. J., assignor to Swiss Knitting Company,Dover, N. J., a corporation of New Jersey Application April 27, 1951,Serial No. 223,274

3 claims. (c1. s6- 176) The present invention relates to knit girdlesand other articles of personal wear and to a method of and apparatus forproducing such articles in such manner that one portion thereofextending transversely of the knit courses is longer than anothersimilarly extending portion.

The primary object of the present invention is to provide a knitfoundation garment, for example a girdle, which is longer at the back ofthe garment than at the front thereof in order to provide the necessarydimension of the back part in accordance with the requirements of theiigure of the wearer, and to accomplish this result so that the changefrom the longer back portion of the girdle to the shorter front portionthereof is gradual rather than sharp or abrupt.

Another object is to provide a simple method of producing knit articleswhich are of dilerent lengths in different portions thereof extendingtransversely of the knit courses.

Another object of the invention is to enable a girdle or other articleof personal wear having parts of diierent lengths to be produced on acircular knitting machine of conventional type with a comparativelysimple attachment on the machine to adapt it for accomplishing thedesired result.

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the presentinvention, as well as the invention itself, will be fully understoodfrom the following description considered in connection with theaccompanying illustrative drawings.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a ladys girdle, of one type, embodyingthe present invention;

Fig. 2 is a front view of the girdle illustrating it in expandedcondition in its normal use on the wearer;

Fig. 3 is a sectional View on the line 3 3 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a view in elevation of part of a circular knitting machine, ofconventional form, provided with the attachment of the presentinvention;

Fig. 5 is a sectional view on the line 5--5 of Fig. 4;

Fig. 6 is a sectional view on the line 6-6 of Fig. 4;

Fig. 7 is a bottom plan view of part of the attachment provided on theknitting machine in accordance with the present invention;

Fig. 8 is a sectional view on a larger scale, on the line 8-8 of Fig. 7;

Fig. 9 is a view similar to Fig. 8 showing a modication.

Referring now to the drawings in detail, the girdle 10 in connectionwith which the present invention is illustrated and described is of thetype disclosed in my application Serial No. 168,531, led June 16, 1950,and now Patent No. 2,555,974. As disclosed in said application, thegirdle is of the elastic two-way stretch type and has a very high degreeof stretch circumferentially of the wearer, as may be noted by acomparison of Figs. l and 2 herein. It will be understood however thatthe present invention is not limited to this type of girdle. Said girdle10 comprises a front part 12, a back part 14 and side parts 16, all ofsaid parts being in integrally knit relation and forming thecircumferentially continuous body portion of the girdle. The knit fabricbody comprising said parts 12, 14 and 16, is produced in a circularknitting machine having cylindrical needles and dial needles which inthe operation of the machine produce a rib-knit fabric.

r As clearly illustrated by Figs. 1 to 3, the rear part ICC 14 of thegirdle is longer than the front part 12 thereof and said two parts areconnected to each other in integral relation by the side portions 16which decrease gradually in length from the back part 14 to the frontpart 12. For producing the above mentioned portions of diferent lengths,the girdle is knit so that the loops at the back part 14 of the girdleare longer than the loops at the front part 12 of the girdle. In theside portions 16, the loops decrease progressively in length from theback part of the girdle to the front part thereof. As a result of thismethod of knitting the girdle, the latter is provided with the longerback and the shorter front part without an abrupt or sharp difference inlength between the two parts, and as a result the girdle has a betterlit on the wearer, is more comfortable and has a better appearance. Itwill be understood that although the loops are of different lengths inthe different parts of the girdle as just described, this is not readilydiscernible in the completed girdle in the relaxed or non-tensionedcondition of the latter, although as indicated in Fig. l the girdle islonger at its back than at its front. As usual, the girdle is providedwith a circumferentially extending knit waistband portion 18 at theupper end of the body portion of the girdle and with a knit garter beltor cuff portion 20 at the lower end of said body portion of the girdle.Knit parts 18 and 20 need not have loops of varying lengths, it beingsucient to provide these loops of different length in the mainbody-encircling part of the girdle which extends vertically between theband 18 and the garter cuff 20. Thus, pursuant to the present inventionsaid body-encircling part of the girdle, constituted by portions 12, 14and 16 of different lengths, is preferably a rib-knit fabric, producedon a circular knitting machine, and is preferably formed entirely ofelastic yarn of the character described in my above mentioned priorapplication. As clearly shown in Fig. l of the drawings, the girdle issubstantially uniform in diameter between the upper and lower edgeportions 18 and 20 thereof. It will be understood however that as tocertain aspects of the present invention the latter is not to be limitedto this specific type 0f elastic girdle.

The method of making the girdle of the present invention and theknitting machine mechanism utilized for accomplishing the desired resultwill now be described with particular reference to Figs. 4 to 8, andalso with reference to Fig. 9 in connection with a modification of thegarment which may be made pursuant to the present invention.

Referring to Fig. 4 there is shown a circular knitting machine of thetype having a needle cylinder indicated generally at 22 and a needledial indicated generally at 24 with a dial cap indicated at 25, and thecam ring for the cylinder needles is indicated at 26. In the type ofmachine here shown, the needle cylinder 22 is stationary and the camring 26 revolves around the axis of the needle cylinder. A conventionalneedle-raising cam is indicated at 28 and a companion needle-loweringcam is indicated at 30. In accordance with the present invention cam 30instead of being adjusted to a xed position according to the length ofthe required loops, as in the usual machine, is movable to variouspositions during each revolution of the cam ring 26, so as to result inthe knitting of loops which are of different lengths in the same courseof the circular knit fabric. More particularly, the arrangement is suchthat cam 30 is lowered to a greater degree during the operation ofknitting the part of the course in the back part 14 of the girdle thansaid cam is lowered during the operation of knitting that part of thecourse which is in the front part 12 of the girdle, with intermediateneedle-lowering i movement of said cam for knitting portions of thecourse which are in the side parts 16 of the girdle. This operation isaccomplished pursuant to the present invention by the provision of thestationary ring cam member 32, shown more clearly in Figs. 4, 7 and 8.

Said ring cam member 32 comprises a circular part 34 which isiixed instationary position to the frame part 36 of the knitting machine. Thelower circular surface 38 of cam ring 32 engages a cam follower 40, hereshown as a roller, carried by a vertically movable rod 42 which isguided forrmovement by the vertical guide 47 in which said rod isslidably held by the upper and lower sets of members 44 and 46. Saidguide 47 is carried by a bracket 48 which is fixed to the post S0. Thelatter is mounted on the top of the cylinder-needle cam ring 26 androtates with the latter during the operation of the machine. The lowerend of rod 42 is pivotally connected at 52 to a lever 54 which ispivotally connected at 56 to a stud 58 at the top of cam ring 26. Asclearly shown in Fig` 4 the intermediate part 60 of lever 54 bears onthe head 62 of a rod 64 which is fastened to the needle-lowering cam inany suitable way as by screw 66 and a pin 68 (Fig. 6). A spring 67interposed between the headed end 62 of rod 64 and the top of the camring 26 retracts the cam 30 upwardly and also holds head 62 resilientlyagainst lever 54 whereby to hold cam follower in engagement with camsurface 38 of cam 32.

As will be evident from an inspection of Figs. 4, 7 and 8, the cam ring32 is designed so that during the rotation of the needle-cylinder camring 26, rod 42 and consequently the needle-lowering cam 30 is depressedthe distance required to produce the loops of varying lengths in theparts 12, 14 and 16 respectively, and of course it will be understoodthat said cani 30 is depressed to a greater extent during that part ofthe course in which the back part of the article is being knit than inthat part of the course in which the front part 112 of the article isbeing knit, with intermediate gradual changes in the depression of thecam, i. e., gradual decrease in the depression stroke of cam 30 in theportions of the course between the knitting of the back part 14 and thefront part 12. As illustrated in Fig. 8 it will be noted that the camring 32 is of variable thickness, being thicker at the circumferentiallyextending portion 70 which is operable during the knitting of the longerloops and thinner at the circumferential'ly extending portion 72 whichis operable during the knitting of the shortest loops, and which has twospacedcircumferentially extending portions 74, between portions 70 and72, which gradually decrease in thickness for 2 gradually decreasing thelengths of loops in the side parts 16 of the girdle, the decreaseoccurring ofcourse from the part of the cam which is operable during theknitting of the back part of the girdle to the part 72 of the cam whichis operable during the knitting of the front part of the girdle.

In Fig. 9, a modification of the cam is illustrated and it will beevident that the length of the loops in parts 12, 14 and 16 arecorrespondingly modified. More particularly, as here shown, instead ofknitting a back part with a series of wales of the same length, and afront part with a series of wales of the same length but shorter thanthe wales of the back part, with gradual change in the length of theloops between said two series of wales, in the same course, the designof the cam ring is such that it decreases gradually in thickness betweenthe thickest portion 70a and the thinnest portion 72a, so that in eachcourse the length of the loop will vary from a maximum in one or a fewwales at the back of the knit fabric body centrally thereof to a minimumat one or a few wales at the front of the article centrally thereof.

As shown by Figs. 4, 6 and 7 there are two sets of mechanisms 42, 54,and a needle-lowering cam 30 for each set, as the particular machine towhich the present invention has been applied in actual practice is atwo-feed machine. It will be understood that there is a yarn feed forsupplying yarn to the cylinder and dial needles in the region of thecompanion cams 28 and 30 of each set, as in the usual two-feed circularknitting machine. It will be obvious of course that the invention doesnot depend on the number of yarn feeds, on the contrary a machine may beprovided with only one yarn feed or with more than two yarn feeds, themachine however having companion cams 28 and 30 and a cam-loweringmechanism 42, 60, 62 for each cam 30 of each set of cams, depending uponthe number of yarn feeds. It will be understood that only one cam ring32 is required irrespective of the number of yarn feeds.

While I have shown and described the preferred embodiments of myinventions in respect to the article, method and machine, respectively,for practising my invention, it will be understood that various changesmay be made in each of these branches of my invention without departingfrom the underlying idea or principles of the invention within the scopeof the appended claims.

Certain features of the invention disclosed but not claimed are claimedin my divisional application Serial Number 369,875, filed July 23, 1953.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure byLetters Patent, is:

1. A circular knit girdle, comprising a peripherally continuous knitcircumferentially elastic fabric body having front and rear knit partswith integral knit side parts connecting said front and rear parts andforming said peripherally continuous knit body having upper and loveredges, said front and rear parts having wales of different lengths,respectively, whereby said front and rear parts are of differentlengths, respectively, between said upper and lower edges thereof tocompensate for the length requirement at the back of the wearer and saidside parts graduating in length between said edges thereof, and saidside parts being longest adjacent the longer one of said first mentionedparts and shortest adjacent the shorter one of said first mentionedparts, said front and rear knit parts being of gradually varying lengthand smoothly merging with adjacent portions of said knit side partswhereby no substantial lines of demarcation between said parts arevisible, said front, rear, and side parts being knit in continuousfashion with loops of gradually varying length in the same circularcourse of said knit fabric body.

.2.' A circular knit article of wearing apparel, comprising aperipherally continuous knit fabric body having front and rear knitparts with integral knit side parts connecting said front and rear partsand forming said peripherally continuous knit body having upper andlower edges, said front and rear parts having wales ofy differentlengths, respectively, extending for substantially the full length ofthe article whereby said front and rear parts are of different lengths,respectively, between said upper and lower edges thereof and said sideparts graduating in length between said edges thereof, and said sideparts'being longest adjacent the longer one of said first mentionedparts and shortest adjacent the shorter one of said first mentionedparts, said fabric body being of substantially uniform diameter betweensaid upper and lower edges thereof.

.3.. A circular knit article of wearing apparel, comprising aperipherally continuous knit fabric body having front and rear knitparts with integral knit side parts connecting said front and rear partsand forming said;

peripherally continuous knit body having upper and lower edges, saidfront and rear parts having wales of different lengths, respectively,whereby said front and rear parts are of different lengths,respectively, between said upperand lower edges thereof and said sideparts graduating in length between said edges thereof, and said sidepartsbeing longest adjacent the longer one of said first mentioned partsand shortest adjacent the shorter one of said first mentioned parts,said front and rear knit partsbeing of gradually varying length andsmoothly merging with adjacent portions of said knit side parts wherebyno substantial lines of demarcation between said parts are visible, saidfront, rear, and side parts being knit in continuous fashion with loopsof gradually varying length in the same circular course of saidV knitfabric body, said fabric body being rib knit and of substantiallyuniform diameter between said upper and lower edges thereof.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS523,866 Powell July 31, 1894 1,056,691 Kimes Mar.. 18, 1913 1,455,370Walton May 15, 1923 1,737,197 Obcrlander Nov. 26, 1929 1,981,136 BloomNov. 20, 1934 2,045,391 Kattermann June 23, 1936 2,163,557 Holmes June20, 1939 2,276,045 Kattermann Mar. 10, 1942 FOREIGN PATENTS 15,956 GreatBritain of 1889 29,540 Great Britain of 1909 23,886 Great Britain of1910.

463,047 Great Britain Mar. 17, 1937

